What "Kind" of Asian Am I? The Human Kind.

Ethnicity. It’s that prickly little variance that blast holes in society; it starts war and racial dilemmas. And today, it is a fad. Bustling in a world of fads, popularity contests, and bold statements, people are too often caught up in the current treads to acknowledge and comprehend the history and culture. They hope to be recognized as cultured and worldly, however their extreme zeal for a particular aspect deters them from learning about those cultures that they claim to be familiar with. Exotic restaurants have become increasingly popular. Sushi bars have now become trendy, hangout places. Anime and manga are also extremely popular forms of media. At the mention of traveling to
Japan one day, the only remark I received was about how cool it would be to go shopping in
Tokyo. When I was younger, I remember I liked watching one of these Japanese cartoon shows and being able to laugh at the characters whose Japanese names meant “rice” and “teapot.” And I eat sushi too, but I can guarantee that the majority of the names I rattle off would not be in English. So why should I celebrate my heritage when I have today’s naïve trend setters to celebrate it for me? Because learning the tweaked jargon and becoming regulars at the local sushi bar does not teach all that is necessary.

It’s ironically amusing. I remember being in elementary school, when my “Asian-ness,” as I believe the terminology goes these days, was bizarre, weird, out of the ordinary. I remember being younger, wanting to say in response to insults that without “us” Asians, most people would not have a fully functioning car. But I also remember at times wanting to be “normal,” by whatever standard society gave that term. Often people, who thought they were so suave and intelligent, tried to guess what “kind of Asian” I was. Who are they anyway? Connoisseurs of people? So time and time again I try to tell people that it is thoroughly impossible to tell what part of
Asia a person is from just by looks, but it seems I have neither luck nor any knowledge of this subject.

However now everything I do rests in the hands of my Oriental heritage. Why is she doing well in math? Because she’s Asian. How did she catch that? Asian. It is not because I work hard, or have good reflexes; no, I have these traits tangled into my heritage. Whew, so there are no super-people among us these days—just those supernatural Asian beings.

Even more amusing to me, is that I am not Japanese-American, or even just Japanese. No, I am Asian. Why resort to a particular country, when you can tackle the largest continent in the world? And it’s as if
Asia just appeared! In reality these Asian cultures are traced to ancient times. (Perhaps, maybe,
Columbus was taking his usual voyage and just happened to miss this huge mass of land. Oh wait—he was looking for
India; I suppose he did miss it by a few thousand miles. Speaking of which,
Asia, being the largest continent, does not consist of only the Oriental countries such as
China,
Japan and
Korea, but also
India! And Pakistan! And
Sri Lanka!)

            The humor works only to an extent. This oddball fad is too optimistic to me. It seems to make an attempt to wash out the past. Foreign cultures were not “celebrated” in this manner a mere century ago, or even a half a century ago. How many history textbooks explain the racism faced by the Chinese miners after the California Gold Rush of 1849? Whose lives were risked to build our grand transcontinental railroad? What about the German-Americans who were brutally harassed in World War I? How many of those history books detail the World War II Japanese internment camps into which one hundred and ten thousand were placed in racial paranoia? And why does Chinatown, Japan-town and Korea-town exist?

            An American history lesson about isolationism emphasized, in Commodore Matthew Perry’s 1853 visit to Japan, that the most important part of this event was the end of American isolationism and the introduction of firearms to the Japanese. As important as big steel boats, big guns and we are, the lesson failed to mention that Perry’s forceful intervention ended 200 years of Japanese isolationism. Modern European and American intervention of the late 19th century such as this disrupted the traditional ways of
Japan, beginning the downfall of the Tokugawa shogunate, which would become the last shogunate in Japanese history. As the shogunate fell, a massive power struggle would arise between the traditional shogun and the modern emperor, later leading to a war and defeat of the traditional system.

            My aunt, an American, was born in an internment camp. My family has a picture of her holding a stuffed toy with my grandparents in the camp and barracks and barbed wire in the background. My mother’s uncle, who once taught traditional Japanese sword-fighting, was forced to hide his swords during World War II. My first generation great-grandparents—“aliens,” as law had deemed them—were forbidden by federal law to become citizens or own their land; it was thus put under the name of my grandmother, who was American enough. My Japanese-American grandfather served the United States Army. My third-generation, American parents pay American income taxes, speak English perfectly, and have earned degrees from American colleges.

          So I apologize when I get annoyed and possibly sarcastic when I am asked if my mom works in a nail salon or at a dry cleaners or if my parents have funny accents or if my grandparents enjoyed staying in the internment camps. I’m so sorry I can’t live up to the ridiculous stereotypes society has associated with my ethnicity. I’m sorry you have been taught to think this way and I’m sorry you don’t know any better.

*Previously posted on myspace

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